4 Reasons Your DIY Graphics Look Amateur (When You’re Not)

A guide to why your DIY Canva graphics aren’t doing your beautiful website any favours

You spend money on a gorgeous website. Professional photos. Thoughtful, strategic copy. The whole thing. And then you hop into Canva and make your own IG graphics. It’s not that hard, right?

I watch this happen to genuinely talented, established business owners who are working their buns off. And their social media is telling a totally different story than their website.

One looks like it belongs in a magazine. The other one looks like a community bulletin board.

Your potential client see both of these (and they might see the community bulletin board first… and never even get to your website).

Here’s what’s actually happening

It’s not that you’re not trying. It’s just a few really specific things that trained eyes catch immediately and untrained eyes… well, you feel it, but it’s hard to put a finger on it.

Here’s what it is:

1. Too many colours. Every post pulls from a slightly different palette — sometimes borrowing from a partner’s or guest’s branding — and it looks kind of… cobbled together. Everything doesn’t have to be boring brown and beige, but it should feel cohesive.
   
   When your grid looks like five different seventh-grade-classes businesses showed up to the same party, that’s a problem.
   
2. No visual hierarchy. This one is sooo tricky to teach, and so important. When everything is the same size and weight — or when your business name is the thing that jumps out when someone glances through — your reader’s eye bounces around. The fix is to pick ONE thing that should be the biggest, most important thing on your graphic. (Probably your hook. Definitely not your logo.) Everything else is there to support it.
   
3. Inconsistency across platforms. Your website and social media should feel like they came from the same person. When they don’t, it’s jarring enough to create a tiny seed of doubt. And doubt is the enemy of the easy yes.

Why this is harder than it looks

Taste and design instinct are built over thousands of hours of being obsessed with the details. If that’s not your thing, it’ll make your brain turn into a mashed potato. (That’s math.) Your time is worth so much more than the hours you’re spending wrestling with a graphic that still looks kinda wrong in the end.

That said, I’m as scrappy as the next gal, and if you still want to DIY it, here’s where to actually start:

Lock in your brand colours.

You only need 3-5. I know it feels boring, but otherwise you’re trying to mash them all into everything and it gets chaotic. (Honestly, two of your five can be shades of black & white.) Keep it simple when it comes to text and backgrounds on your website and social media. Your photos can pull in more colours, but keep them the same vibe throughout — “fall colour palette,” “moody coffee shop,” that kind of thing. Write down your hex codes. Use only those.

Pick two fonts.

One for headlines, one for body. Make them easy to read and not fancy. They don’t have to be the same as your logo. You can stick with the same two fonts for a couple of years at least — and you’ll save SO much time not second-guessing yourself every single time you open Canva.

Use templates as a starting point — but get them all from one place.

Don’t pull templates from all over the internet. Find a small handful from one designer that you can make work for your business. And when you’re working in them, ask yourself, am I treating this graphic like my junk drawer? Don’t put EVERYTHING in.

Design is communication — which means that if everything is important, nothing is important.

Get real photos taken.

I can’t stress this enough. You can have a beautiful website layout, a gorgeous PDF, a perfectly on-brand colour palette — and then uyou pull in your dark, blurry, three-years-ago photos, and… WOMP. It’s so worth having even 5-10 really good brand photos.

FAQ

How many brand colours should I actually use?

Three to five. I know — boring. But the second you’ve got eight, every graphic turns into a fight about which ones to use, and your grid starts looking like a ransom note. Pick your few, write down the hex codes, don’t wander.

What fonts should I use for my Canva graphics?

Two. One for headlines, one for body. Both easy to read — save the swirly script for the occasional accent, not your actual words. Lock them in and leave them alone for a couple of years. You’ll save yourself a hundred tiny decisions every time you open Canva.

Why do my graphics look off even if I used a template?

Usually it’s hierarchy. Everything’s the same size, so our eyes don’t know where to land. Pick the one thing you want someone to read first (almost always your hook, almost never your logo) and make it the biggest. Here’s a brilliant article by Canva on hierarchy.

If that list made you tired

If you look at this list and feel tired just reading it, that’s good information too.

Not everyone is meant to be their own graphic designer. And there’s nothing wrong with that. You wouldn’t expect your designer to also be great at whatever it is that you do.

The goal isn’t to become a design expert. The goal is to have marketing that looks as good as you are.

If it doesn’t yet (or if it sounds like Chat GPT / Claude) — that’s exactly what Marketing Sprints are for. One focused day, everything crossed off, brand looking like it actually belongs to you.

Come see how it works.

Doreen Vanderhart is the founder of Knap Creative, a boutique design and marketing studio for established service-based businesses. She has been building websites and making things look beautiful since before Canva existed — which feels both impressive and ancient. (Let’s go with impressive.)